26 June 2022
The purpose of a law code is to get you acquainted with God's character. It comes with a promise of making peace with God and avoiding His wrath. It opens the door; you can be part of His family, or a good servant and ally, or just a slave. You can also be an enemy. Whatever you choose, the law code is a reflection of His character and the fundamental nature of Creation.
Conduct alone is not the point. The Code of Noah expects you to capitulate and subject yourself to God in your heart. The law is not legislation, but an image of who God is. Once you can embrace the broader image, you are in a position to understand divine priorities, and not be chained down by the provisions. Very little of the code is inflexible. The idea is that you develop a desire to please the Lord.
The code puts His mercy and blessings in reach of every human born, Elect or not. Granted, for westerners in particular, this is a very hard path. Still, it is possible for everyone to walk in miracles and shalom with or without spiritual birth. Some people stumble into spiritual birth and then have to explore what they have found. Others must work their way into it, striving to figure it out up front before they can discover where it all leads. The Code of Noah is designed to accommodate either approach. Either way, spiritual birth is not the end of the matter; the code still applies. If you want the blessings, you must obey it.
So far I've cited three primary requirements for those who have been falsely conditioned by Western Civilization. One: You must embrace the mystical approach to understanding reality. Our mortal existence is not ultimate reality; it can be compared to a mere simulation. You are obliged to see the moral truth first and foremost, so that the question of living in this mess is not figuring out what your senses can tell you, but to sense the hidden truth directly with your heart. You must embrace the idea that this world is not really all that important.
Two: Creation itself is feudal. God owns everything that exists, and parcels it out in subject domains as He sees fit. Your obligation is to discover your assigned role, knowing that at least part of it is likely to be a moving target. You must go into this knowing that it is your duty to sense the subtle shifts in dominion among humans based on the fluidity of the context. Western individualism is a sin; no one is totally free of all government. On the other hand, no human government can argue with God.
Three: Creation is also alive and sentient. In the same way that you are accountable to God for how you deal with other people, so you are to treat all of Creation as a person and as many people. We do not conquer nature; it is our ally in serving the Lord. It is not fallen; we are. But it will obey you in degrees based on your understanding and obedience to God's Law.
So a primary issue is embracing that you are fallen and that the flesh is not your real self, but it belongs within this simulation. Our human mortal existence is rather punitive in nature. We should strive to work our way out of it. This is part of the Code of Noah. It's not just works of the flesh, but a lifetime of diminishing the flesh.
Following those three prerequisites is one fundamental truth: The Code of Noah assumes that you will not worship any other deity. Be very careful to poll your own convictions about what constitutes idolatry. Jehovah alone is God. After the Cross, His Son is the image of God that we pursue. Worship is no longer what it was before Christ; we no longer offer sacrifices on a plain altar of uncut stones. All that is required is that we bow our heads and hearts to Him in any place set apart from common human use.
Ideally worship would be out of doors, in a natural setting, but that depends on the context. Nature would love to sing along with you. Nothing stops you from praying any place at all in your heart, but community worship requires that the community try to set aside at least one place for no other use. There should be praying, singing and discussion of the Bible. Nothing else is required, and a great deal of variation is permitted within those guidelines.
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